Gunn earns MVP honours as Halton takes Spectator Classic

Burlington Post

Although Hamilton is widely regarded as being a hotbed of girls’ high school basketball in Ontario, a sleeper team stepped up and won the 2012 Hamilton Spectator Classic.

Halton took top honours at the 16th-annual four-team regional all-star tournament with a hard-fought 53-42 victory over Hamilton Public on Wednesday at the St. Mary Gym. The consolation final went to Hamilton Catholic, 76-40 over Brant County.

It was the first Spec championship for Halton since 2008. Public last won the showcase tournament in 2002.

Hamilton Catholic came into the tournament as favourites because the St. Mary Crusaders and St. Thomas More Knights each have been OFSAA champions for the past two straight years at the Triple A and Quad A levels, respectively. The Catholic lineup featured seven players from those two schools.

Hamilton Catholic league schools have captured nine provincial Quad A titles since 2001 and seven Triple A crowns since 1992.

“We’re extremely proud,” said Halton coach Tina De Carvalho of Oakville Loyola. “Halton has been underestimated in the past. We’ve only got four Grade 12s here, so that’s a sign of how strong our region will be.”

Halton raced to a 13-1 lead and never looked back. Said De Carvalho, “I didn’t expect to go up that much that early.”

A key, according to De Carvalho, was the play of 5-foot-10 Rasheeka Gunn of Abbey Park on Hamilton Public’s 6-foot-4 national team centre Saicha Grant-Allen. Gunn finished with 10 points, while Grant-Allen netted five.

“I tried to play hard like always,” Gunn said. “I wasn’t scared, but I wasn’t overconfident, either. It was an amazing win and fun at the same time.”

Hamilton Public, led by Westdale’s Lexi Spadafora’s eight-point third quarter, narrowed the gap to 41-38. But a three-point basket by Sarah Traynor of Oakville Loyola seemed to take the momentum away from the Hamilton squad to start the fourth.

Spadafora led all scorers with 16 points. Her Westdale teammates, Jayanne Gaunt and Nicole Morrison, chipped in with eight and four points, respectively.

For Halton, Traynor distributed the ball well and tossed in 13 points. Emily Wilk of Loyola had eight points, while Tiffany McNeil (Holy Trinity) and Amy Jarvis (Nelson) contributed five apiece.

“We put it all our there on Monday and didn’t bring the same game for this team,” said Public coach Erin Adachi, referring to Public’s 70-69 overtime win against Hamilton Catholic in the opener. “We respected this team, but we didn’t bring the same intensity. The win against the Catholics meant so much to us.”

In the consolation game, Brant County hustled to a 15-14 first-quarter lead before the Catholic squad began to flex its muscles. Catholic led 19-17 at the end of the first quarter and extended the lead to 40-24 at the half and 59-32 at three quarters.

Kia Nurse of Morer led all scorers with 13 points. Melissa Tatti (Bishop Tonnos) added 11, while Celina Botts of More and Christina Buttenham of St. Mary contributed eight apiece. Haley Bowie (Tonnos) and Monika Batinic (Cardinal Newman) chipped in with seven each.

Traynor won the three-point shooting contest, sinking 15 in one minute. The other opening game of the tournament was won by Halton, 63-23 over Brant.